Planned cities coming in Ogun, says commissioner

As part of its cardinal programmes, the Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration intends to have planned cities across the state, Commissioner for Physical Planning Adebayo Fari has said.

During an interview, he said: “We have been strict with the monitoring of property development by ensuring compliance with the master plan. Residents have been complying and cooperating with us. There has been improved voluntary compliance which is necessary in the enforcement of any law.

‘’We have identified some black spots but with the support of the governor, we are on the path of correcting the mistakes of the past.”

He said the government encouraged some problems, adding: “One hurdle we faced on assumption of office as the commissioner for the environment was flooding. It created a lot of challenges for the government because of the unregulated property development across the state. Mostly affected were Ifo and Ota local government areas.”

On compliance, Fari said: “The sincerity being exhibited by this administration has really helped us. With what the people have seen in this government, I believe they have made up their minds to cooperate and give maximum support. We have done series of sensitisation. The government acquired a number of vehicles and branded them Build right initiative and the modus operandi of this programme has been to go into the nooks and crannies of the state to engage communities in dialogue on the need to adhere to the master plan and the need to also visit our offices for first-hand information on land status and the consequences of not getting necessary permits before building.”

He said the governor planned that in the next 10 years, more people are liekly to moved into the state because of the onging developmental projects.

“This is why most of the roads we are constructing would be inaugurated in a short time. Most of them are six lanes. With a projection that the population of Ogun State will hit between 10 million and 11 million in another 15 years, we should be providing for that population now. That informed the massive investment in road infrastructure, in education, in urban and physical planning among other sectors. We are also doing a lot to make sure that everything is in line with the visions of the founders of the state,” he said.

On the menace of land speculators Omo-Onile, he said: “We have noticed this and I want to admit that the government created an avenue for it in the past. What we have seen is that the government after acquiring large parcel of land and went to sleep thereby, giving room to land speculators (the Omo-Onile) to take advantage of this to encroach and resell such land to unsuspecting members of the public. The unsuspecting allottees will come forward to argue that they bought the land from someone who claimed to own it and then start to build. What should have been done is that immediately government acquires a parcel of land, it should go ahead and do a layout of the place and start allocating to people and provide the necessary infrastructure to make it habitable.”